Bigger Loser winner Danni Allen felt like a champion even before she stepped on the scales for her final weigh-in.

"I knew no matter what, in my heart, I had already won," the now svelte 26-year-old said on the Today show Tuesday. Danni dropped from 258 pounds to 137 pounds during the course of the show, beating outJeff Nichols by less than a pound.

And during that slimdown, Danni impressively packed on 19 pounds of muscle! Did that positive gain have her worried about snagging the $250,000 prize? "It did play a little bit mentally, because this is a weight loss show; it's about the numbers," she explained. "But at the end of the day, if you're telling me I lost because I gained too much muscle, I'll take it."

"It just has given me the self-confidence that I never had before, and that sense of belief that I can dream again," she added. "You know, nothing's too big...Anything's possible, and I just believe it."